


Sing a Melody of Queen

by frankiesin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Mutual Pining, Pining, Reverse Big Bang Challenge, dumb teenagers in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 16:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18898498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankiesin/pseuds/frankiesin
Summary: It all started when Sirius and James brought back Queen's entire discography after Winter Break.Or: how Freddie Mercury got Remus and Sirius to finally talk about their feelings.(Written for WSBB 2019)





	Sing a Melody of Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lilmossy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilmossy/gifts).



> So this wasn't my first BB but it was my first reverse BB, and that was exciting! My artist was r-j-lupinn on tumblr, and his piece was fuckign adorable. 
> 
> This fic may or may not have also been influenced by my non-HP friends berating me to watch Bohemian Rhapsody and me only watching half of it because that was how long the plane ride to DC was. 
> 
> The art for this fic can be found here: [link](https://r-j-lupinn.tumblr.com/post/185022906834/my-piece-for-wolfstar-bigbang-welshbastard-did)

When asked about it later, Remus would gladly say it was all Freddie Mercury’s fault. After all, if the man had never started Queen, they would have never released  _ A Day at the Races _ , and James and Sirius would have never become obsessed with the album over the winter holidays. Of course, Remus had grown to love the album as well, but at least he could control himself enough to not belt out the lyrics whenever he made eye contact with one of his mates. 

 

That was what Sirius and James had been doing the moment they boarded the Hogwarts Express two weeks ago. Remus and Peter had already been in the car, sitting with their legs up on the chairs so that no one could join them, when the doors flew open and James and Sirius burst in while screeching the words to  _ Somebody to Love _ . They weren’t even trying to sing well, and really, that was Remus’ main issue with the whole thing. If his friends had bothered to put in some effort, he would have joined in with their shenanigans, but as it was, they sounded like nails on a chalkboard and Remus didn’t want to call them his friends anymore. 

 

That was an exaggeration. It had become apparent last year that there was nothing in the world that could break up the four of them, not after Sirius had gone out of his way to make up to Remus, and James had threatened to lock the two of them in a broom cupboard until they sorted their shit out. 

 

Remus had accepted Sirius’ apology initially to avoid getting locked in a broom closet with the other boy. Remus would have loved to have been stuck with Sirius, except for one small detail: Sirius was completely unaware of Remus’ feelings for him, and Remus wasn’t so bold to assume that Sirius returned them. Sirius had come out as gay to the other three Marauders at the end of fourth year, but Remus was still closeted to his friends. He didn’t know why. They wouldn’t care that he was into blokes as much as he was into birds. They were all still friends with Sirius, after all. 

 

No, Remus was keeping his feelings to himself because he was pretty sure that Sirius had never looked twice at him. Remus was tall, too tall, really, and lanky and covered in long, ugly scars that he couldn’t always hide under his robes. His nose was crooked, his hair was the most boring shade of brown imaginable, and his eyes… well. There was a reason no one ever wrote songs about people with brown eyes. There wasn’t much to write about. 

 

Sirius had grown into his body, whereas Remus had grown over his. Sirius was a few centimetres shorter than James, who was around the same height as Remus. His hair was glossy and wavy enough to look good no matter what he did with it, and his eyes were a clear, beautiful grey. He wasn’t the most masculine looking boy Remus had ever set eyes on, but he was attractive as hell and that made Remus’ life very difficult. 

 

Another thing that made Remus’ life very difficult was James’ new turntable. Over the summer, he and Sirius had apparently gone into the nearby muggle village, found a record store, and gone apeshit over it. Their dorm looked completely different, with albums hung up over the walls and the turntable sitting between James’ and Sirius’ beds. They’d been using said turntable to indoctrinate Pete and Remus to their new taste in music. Remus hadn’t had the chance to tell the two of them that he’d already heard most of the albums, since his mum was Muggle and she had good taste in music. 

 

At this point, Remus had figured out that it didn’t matter what he told James and Sirius. They were going to blast Queen and Bowie, and they were going to blast them  _ loudly _ . 

 

They were up in the dorm now, all four of them, and Sirius was messing around with the turntable to see if he could charm it to skip from song to song. So far, it was working, but the side effect was that Sirius was only playing the first few seconds of every song off the album. It was a bit like getting whiplash, and Remus was considering moving down to the common room so that he could get some work done. They had their first essay (Transfiguration, ten inches) due at the end of the week, and Remus wanted to get it out of the way before he forgot about it again. 

 

Everyone outside of the Marauders thought that Remus was the good kid. The truth was that Remus was barely holding it together at all times, and that most of his work was done the night before, under candlelight or a hastily muttered  _ Lumos _ , and that he spent the rest of his spare time working on other pranks and quests with the Marauders. It wasn’t that Remus hated school work, it was that everything was interesting to him and he had a hard time focusing on something just because there was a deadline.

 

He found himself humming along to  _ Somebody to Love _ after a few minutes, and realised that Sirius had stopped fiddling with the turntable and had decided to let the record play. 

 

Remus looked up from his notes. Sirius was lounging across his own bed, his hair tied back in a bun and his wand sticking up through it. He was unfairly gorgeous, especially at times like these where he didn’t even know he was doing it. Sirius turned his head, catching Remus’ eye, and Remus dropped back behind his book.

 

“Are you still working on that essay, Moony?” Sirius said, and rolled over onto his back. He grinned, showing off his perfect, pointed canines. “It’s not due for another three days.”

 

“I know,” Remus said. “But we’re not doing anything else, so I wanted to get ahead.”

 

“We could do something else,” James offered. He’d been hunched over his Potions book, neck deep in research for something to catch Lily’s attention again. He’d pissed her off, the weekend before, when the four of them had charmed snowballs to follow Snape around and pelt him in the back of the head. Lily and Snape’s friendship was falling apart at the seams, but she was still pretty insistent on defending him. Remus didn’t understand it. If any of his friends had called him a half-breed, he’d have socked them in the face and moved on from it.

 

Snape had called Lily a Mudblood, and while she’d told him off for it, she hadn’t completely let go. He still showed up on some of their Prefect rounds, hovering behind her and Remus and blabbing on about how Lily was different than every other Muggleborn, and how he’d said it in a moment of anger. Remus figured it was all bullshit. He’d seen how James would fall over his own feet to get Lily to look at him; the only difference between him and Snape was that James wasn’t an arse and he didn’t throw slurs around at the people he was trying to win over. 

 

“We’re not going to see Evans,” Sirius said. 

 

James rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t going to suggest that.”

 

“And we’re not going to practice Quidditch, either,” Remus said, and flipped over the parchment he’d been looking through. So much for getting through the essay now. 

 

Peter raised his hand, as though they were still in class and one of the three of them was his professor. “I’d like to go practice Quidditch.”

 

“Pete, you’re not even on the bloody team,” Sirius said. 

 

“I could be,” Peter frowned. “If you or Marlene stepped down, I could be a Beater.”

 

“You’d be a shit Beater, mate,” Sirius said, laughing.

 

James shook his head. “Ignore him, Pete.”

 

“Am I wrong, though?” Sirius asked, throwing his arms out to emphasise his point. 

 

Remus could feel the irritation radiating off of Peter, and the way his dark eyes clouded over, and set his notes down. He’d found himself playing mediator between Sirius and Peter more and more over the last semester. Ever since he and Sirius had made up, Sirius had been going after Peter. James didn’t know if it was on purpose or not, or if Sirius just needed somewhere to put his frustrations and Peter was his best shot. Sirius couldn’t take things out on James, because James was James, and he knew better than to start a fight with Remus. Remus was willing to fight back, and he knew how to make things ugly between himself and Sirius. 

 

Remus didn’t want to make things ugly, and neither did Sirius, and so Peter was the butt of all the Marauders’ jokes now. 

 

“Come on, let's get out of here,” Remus said. He carelessly dropped his quill down, and then quickly moved to pick it up so that it didn’t drip onto his notes. Just because he wasn’t working on the essay now didn’t mean he could destroy his notes for later. “It’s too stuffy to think up here.”

 

“What’s the plan?” Sirius shot up. If he’d been anyone else, he would have fallen off of the bed. As he was Sirius, and therefore unfairly graceful, he just spun around so that his legs cascaded over the side of the mattress and his toes hit the floor without making a sound. He leaned forward, grinning again. “Wanna hit up Hogsmeade?”

 

“It’s too dark out for that,” Remus said. The sun was still setting before dinner, and Remus didn’t want to go running around the village in the dark, especially since it was the middle of the week and they weren’t supposed to be leaving the school grounds. If it were later in the year, he would have agreed immediately. 

 

“I heard the Slytherins are having a study session in the library,” Peter piped up. He was looking at Remus for the confidence to continue, and so Remus nodded, urging him along with wherever he was going. “We could take the cloak, a few dungbombs, and see what happens?”

 

“Brilliantly simple,” James said. He leaned over and pulled Peter in. “Let’s go.”

 

They were too big to all fit under the cloak. They’d gone from four to three during third year, and now they were lucky to get James and Sirius under the cloak without someone’s foot poking out. That didn’t stop them from trying, because they were sixteen year old boys and the concept of rational, well-thought out plans was still beyond them ninety percent of the time. 

 

James and Peter ended up under the cloak. Remus grabbed his prefect badge, and Sirius claimed that he was handsome enough to get away with anything, and the four of them set out. Remus led, with Sirius humming some Bowie song under his breath beside him. Remus didn’t let himself get distracted. He thought about anything else besides Sirius’ mouth and his perfect jawline and the way his eyelashes brushed up against his eyebrows when his eyes were wide open. He didn’t think about taking Sirius’ face in his hands and kissing him, getting to taste his tongue and find out what exactly Sirius was made of that made him so irresistible. 

 

He didn’t. He thought about the fucking Transfiguration essay sitting up in his dorm and how glad he was that he’d dropped Potions after their OWLS last year. He thought about how Snape’s face would look when he realised that the Marauders were back in business again, and how he still couldn’t pin anything on Remus because Remus never left any evidence. 

 

He didn’t think about how Sirius’ eyes would light up afterwards, as they hid far enough from the Slytherins that they couldn’t get caught. He  _ couldn’t _ . James and Peter were behind them, even though Remus couldn’t see them because of the damn cloak. 

 

Remus pushed open the library doors, taking a moment to inhale the smell of old books and ink. It was cliche, but he really did love the smell of the library. It felt like a secondary home, where he could stretch out and not have to worry about interruptions from pretty boys who got bored too easily. 

 

Sirius slipped under Remus’ arm and Remus narrowed his eyes at his friend long enough for James and Peter to slip through the door as well. He closed it behind himself, careful not to let it slam and piss off Madam Pince. He whispered, “I wasn’t holding it open for you, Black.”

 

“Aw, and I thought you were a gentleman,” Sirius said, and winked. Remus ignored it, and walked past him, into the depths of the library. 

 

Sirius followed, and Remus could hear Peter’s heavy footsteps behind him as well. Sirius trailed his long fingers against the spines of the books as they passed through the aisle. “Did we turn the turntable off before we left?”

 

“I don’t know,” Remus said. “That’s your job.”

 

“No it’s not.”

 

“You put it on!” Remus hissed, careful to keep his voice low. He knew what they were doing, being purposely loud to throw the Slytherins off. Remus had spotted them on his way in: a group of mostly fourth years, with Snape and Mulciber at the head of the table, going over whatever they’d decided to study. Remus wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that they were teaching the fourth years a bunch of curses. Snape hadn’t done or said anything to the Marauders since The Incident, but Remus wasn’t an idiot. He knew that the greasy shit was up to something. He always was.

 

“Yeah, well, you’re the responsible one,” Sirius said after a moment too long. He’d been listening for Peter and James’ footsteps to move away.

 

“Since when?” Remus said back, turning around to face Sirius in the aisle.

 

“Since forever.”

 

Remus shook his head and started walking again, making his footsteps louder than usual. They’d done this charade a thousand times before, purposely splitting up the four of them so that they wouldn’t all land in detention at the same time, or for the same prank. It worked, but it had been a while since Remus and Sirius had been paired together to play the distraction. Remus felt off-kilter about the whole thing, now that he knew it was really just him and Sirius alone in the library, and that James and Peter had gotten involved in the job.

 

“Don’t walk away from me like that, you know we’d fall apart if you weren’t there to keep us in line,” Sirius said, running to keep up with him. He got a sharp shush from Pince for that, and Remus smacked him in the arm. Sirius crossed his over his chest. “And don’t be a prick, either. I’m not  _ that  _ loud.”

 

“No, you just love the sound of your own voice,” Remus said. 

 

“Trouble in paradise?” Snape’s voice came from behind Remus’ shoulder, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. Somehow, he hadn’t heard Snape sneaking up on them, and now he was there. “You two really do fight like a pair of lovers, don’t you?”

 

“As if you’d know what love looks like,” Sirius snapped back. “No one’s loved you since you had the misfortune of sticking your nose out of your mum.”

 

“No, Black, I think you’re talking about your own heritage there,” Snape said, but his hand was on his wand. 

 

Remus rolled his eyes and stepped between the two of them. He wasn’t in the mood for a duel in the middle of the library. Sure, it would make for one hell of a distraction, but he knew that Snape was the real target of the dungbombs. Snape was always the target. Slimy little fucker, never knew when to leave people alone and shut his stupid fucking mouth. Remus put his hands out, purposely showing that he wasn’t wielding and had no interest in a fight. “Go back to your study group. We aren’t bothering you.”

 

“Really? Your incessant bickering wasn’t  _ bothering _ anyone?” Snape hissed. “Have you forgotten where you are, or did you just forget how to read?”

 

“I know exactly where I am, now fuck off,” Remus said. He was a good head taller than Snape, and used that to his advantage as he stepped forward, crowding Snape backwards and into the shelves. “It’s not your personal library, Snape. If you wanted peace and quiet, you could have stayed in the dungeons.”

 

Snape pursed his lips and shifted his grip on his wand, but he backed off. Once he was gone, back to his group of Slytherins, Remus let his shoulders slump and rubbed his face. His fingers brushed over the new scar that ran across the bridge of his nose. He’d gotten that one only two moons ago, and it was fresh enough that he still sometimes forgot about it. He hated it the most, because it was one of the only scars that he couldn’t cover up. It was an outward reminder that people weren’t staring at him just because he was tall and gangly and wearing second hand clothes. People were also staring at him because he looked horrific now. The outside finally matched the beast within. 

 

Sirius put a hand on Remus’ arm. “You alright?”

 

“I’m fine,” Remus said, although both of them knew better than to believe him about that. 

 

“I can hex him,” Sirius offered. 

 

Remus rolled his eyes. “Don’t. It’ll just give him another thing to get his knickers in a twist about.”

 

Sirius took his hand off of Remus, and Remus pretended that he didn’t miss the contact. The two boys continued down the row of books, making up things to talk about and waiting for the inevitable chaos that would come from James and Peter setting off the bombs. Snape was probably still scared of him, that was all. If Snape hadn’t known Remus’ secret, then he would have hexed Remus. If Remus had brought out his own wand, Snape would have hexed him. 

 

Remus realised after a moment that he  _ wanted _ a fight. He was on edge. It was about halfway between moons, which didn’t explain his feelings at all. He shook it off, not worried about how he was feeling at the moment. There were other things to attend to, such as keeping Snape and the other Slytherins from realising that Sirius and Remus were only a distraction. 

 

“We should see Queen live,” Sirius said. He pulled out a book as he said it, too, and Remus wasn’t sure if any of his friend’s actions were real, or if they were all a part of the act.

 

“How?” Remus asked. 

 

“Over the summer,” Sirius said. He flipped the book open, and started carding through the pages as though he was actually going to read it. His hair had fallen over his face, gentle waves hiding his expression completely. It was one of those moments where Remus was taken aback by how damn  _ attractive _ Sirius was, but also annoyed that Sirius was both the easiest and most difficult person to read. He could pick and choose when his face gave everything away. Remus couldn’t. Or, at least he didn’t think he could. He was always worried that people knew more about him than he wanted them to know, and that they were all waiting for the right moment to tell him that his secrets had never been secrets. 

 

Remus feared the day when one of his mates told him that everyone knew he wanted to kiss Sirius. He knew it would end their friendship, because Sirius never knew what to do when people were into him but he didn’t return the feelings, and he always ended up making a fool of himself. And, of course, James was always going to side with Sirius in the end, and Peter just followed whoever got the most votes. 

 

Sirius looked up. “What, is that a bad idea?”

 

“No, no it’s not,” Remus said. He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Sorry, my mind’s still up with the transfiguration essay.”

 

“Moony, you bore me,” Sirius said. He rolled his eyes. “We’re here for research, and you’ve got your mind on school.”

 

“Is research not a part of school?”

 

“Not if it’s extra-curricular,” Sirius said. He said it loud enough that the Slytherins were sure to hear him, and Remus knew it was on purpose. If they were focused on whatever future prank Sirius and Remus were talking about, then they wouldn’t be thinking about the other two Marauders. And that was exactly what all four were going for.

 

There was a soft series of popping noises, followed by swearing, Madam Pince hissing for everyone to quiet down, and the smell of month old socks. 

 

Sirius grinned and cocked an eyebrow at Remus. “Extra-curriculars later?”

 

“Yeah, that essay just got a lot more convincing,” Remus said, and took the book from Sirius to shove it back into the shelf. Normally, he’d try to find where it really belonged, but the smell of socks and  _ nasty shit _ was getting stronger, and he wanted to get out before it got worse. 

 

Sirius was laughing as the two of them pushed through the doors. They’d caught sight of Snape on their way out, and the anger in his sharp, crooked features had been intense enough to set a cauldron on fire. Remus had simply waved at him, knowing that their innocence was secured, and that James and Peter had done their part without being seen. 

 

James pulled the cloak off of himself and Peter once they were at the end of the hallway. He folded it under his arm and turned to the others. “I heard something about a Queen show?”

 

“That was part of the distraction--”

 

“I think we should do it,” James said, before Sirius could finish his statement. Sirius frowned, and James shrugged. “It’s going to be our last summer before we graduate; we might as well make it worthwhile. And don’t worry about getting tickets, my mum and dad can cover anyone who needs it.”

 

Remus tensed at that. He wasn’t  _ poor _ , but he was nowhere near as well off as James was, or as Sirius had been before he’d been disinherited. James, in his usual James fashion, was trying to make sure that all of his friends were taken care of, and a part of Remus was honoured. The rest of him, however, was annoyed, because if he saved, he could take care of his own ticket, and he didn’t want anyone to think that he needed handouts. He wasn’t dependent on anyone, really, not even his own parents. He felt the need to prove himself, so that no one would see him as proof as to why werewolves or half blood wizards weren’t good enough. 

 

“Nah, we’ll figure it out on our own,” Sirius said. He looped his arm around James’ neck, pulling him in close. “You can tell your mum and dad to save room for Pete and Remus, though. Figure we can spend the whole summer together while we’re at it.”

 

“Dad wants me to take an internship at the ministry,” Peter piped up.

 

Remus shrugged. His parents hadn’t mentioned anything about his summer plans. Honestly, he was glad for the excuse not to go home. Things had gotten bad over winter break, with Hope and Lyall going back and forth about what to do with Remus after graduation, and threats of divorce coming from both parties. 

 

He didn’t think about that, either. Too much to unpack there, and not enough time between class to sit down and really get into it all. It was easier to shove his parents’ failing marriage to the back of his mind and instead focus on things he could deal with in one sitting, such as a Transfiguration essay or working out a way to fuck with the Slytherins again. 

 

“Well, we’ll figure it all out eventually,” James said. He straightened up, effectively shrugging Sirius off, and walked ahead of his friends. He spun around as he continued to talk, so that his words didn’t get sucked up into the walls of the castle. “We’ve got the whole semester ahead of us, and since NEWTS aren’t until next year, I doubt we’ll have to spend any time revising for exams. The semester is ours to conquer!”

 

“So dramatic,” Sirius grinned, looking over at Remus as though the two were in on the joke. 

 

“You’re one to talk,” James said, and flapped the cloak at him. 

 

“Oh please, my drama is saved up for appropriate occasions,” Sirius said. “Such as  _ actually having tickets to see Queen _ and not just talking about getting them. I’ll be dramatic later.”

 

“We know you will,” Remus said. “It’s part of your charming personality.”

 

Sirius grinned and pointed at him. “Moony gets it.”

 

Remus shook his head. Moony didn’t get anything involving Sirius, not really. He just knew what to say to get a smile out of the boy. 

 

* * *

 

None of them got detention, which was a miracle in of itself. Snape complained, because he always complained, but Remus and Sirius both put on their best faces and said bullshit about studying (and, since they hadn’t been the only ones in the library that day, there were enough witnesses around to back them up), and James and Peter simply said they’d been in the dorm the entire time and had no idea what Snape was on about. 

 

January slipped into February with a startling amount of snowfall during the night, and everyone woke up to a beautiful white mess. Sirius decided that the proper response to this was to try and draw out shapes in the snow from their bedroom, and James joined in after realising that he could write out  _ Lily Evans is hot _ without having to worry about her hitting him over the head for it. 

 

Of course, he’d forgotten that Remus and Lily were prefects together, and that Remus loved taking the piss out of his friends. 

 

“That was Potter, wasn’t it?” Lily asked Remus as the portrait door closed behind them. 

 

“What was?” Remus asked. He had a feeling he knew what she was asking about, but he’d learned not to give anything away. He’d gotten out of dozens of detentions by holding his tongue and letting the teachers figure out what pranks were attached to his name. Sirius and James, on the other hand, were proud of their work and didn’t confess so much as they couldn’t help but claim to be the masterminds behind the nuisance. 

 

Lily raised her eyebrows at him, clearly seeing through his attempt. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. The writing in the snow? That was him, it had to be.”

 

“Other people can find you attractive, you know,” Remus said. He knew, objectively speaking, that Lily was a very attractive girl. He’d never bothered to consider her, because by the time he’d gotten to know her as more than a fellow housemate, James had made it very clear that he was in love with Lily. Remus wasn’t about to get between James Potter and his feelings. James did that well enough on his own. 

 

“Other people don’t call me  _ hot _ , though,” Lily said. 

 

“...you’ve got a point there, Evans,” he said. He sighed. “It was James. He thought it was a good idea at the time.”

 

“I think that’s the best summary of Potter I’ve ever heard,” she said, smiling. Remus had noticed, over the past semester, that Lily had started warming up to James. It wasn’t anything significant, and he wasn’t placing bets on them getting together just yet, but it was warmth all the same. Remus figured it was because James was finally starting to mature, coupled with the fact that Lily and Snape had had a falling apart and were no longer on speaking terms. 

 

Remus hadn’t asked about that. He didn’t think it was his place to. 

 

The finished the patrol while still going over the best ways to summarise James. It was a good way to pass the time, and it was a good way for Remus to better understand where Lily stood when it came to her opinions on James. He wanted the two of them to get along. If they ended up dating, that would be alright as well, but the truth was that he was friends with them both individually and was getting tired of having to split his time up between Lily and the Marauders. Things would be easier if he could hang out with all of his friends at once instead of having to schedule his hangout times as though they were extra classes. 

 

The common room was in an uproar when the two prefects returned. Lily had gone through the portrait hole first, and Remus had nearly stumbled into her when she froze in the entryway. He was tall enough to see over her hair, though, and could see that James, Peter, and Sirius had moved the turntable downstairs and were making a game out of karaoke. 

 

“They’re creative, at least,” Remus muttered, hoping it would cause Lily’s shoulders to relax a little. 

 

“I’d prefer if they weren’t so creative on a  _ school night _ ,” she said. There wasn’t a lot of venom in her voice, though. That was good. Remus didn’t want to get between the Marauders and an irritated Lily Evans. He knew better. There was a reason he always walked around with a book, and it was to hide his face behind whenever Lily stormed up to his friends with an agenda on her face. He figured that, if she couldn’t see the grin he was holding back, she wouldn’t target him with any of her hexes. So far, he’d been right. 

 

“I think Sirius calls it multi-tasking,” Remus said. 

 

Lily glared. 

 

Remus threw his hands up. “I didn’t say I agreed with him--” he did, “--that’s just what he uses to excuse his behaviour.”

 

“You should talk to him about that,” Lily said, and then winked at him before crossing the room to where James had jumped up onto the back of one of the chairs. 

 

Remus frowned. He wasn’t sure what Lily had meant by that, or if she’d meant anything at all. He’d hinted at having feelings for Sirius, but he’d never actually said anything to her about it. He wasn’t sure how to go about doing it, especially since his friendship with Lily was completely different from his friendships with the Marauders. 

 

“Remus!” Sirius called out, pulling Remus from his thoughts. “Get over here!”

 

Remus broke into a grin without thinking much of it, and pushed through the other Gryffindors to Sirius. Sirius jumped down and pulled him into a twirl as the track switched over to the next song. Somehow, Remus had never heard it before. He must have been studying a lot more than he’d realised if there were still James and Sirius songs he didn’t know the lyrics to yet. 

 

Sirius was singing along, because he was Sirius and his voice never cracked when he went for high notes. Remus wondered mildly if there was anything out there that Sirius  _ wasn’t _ good at, because sometimes he was so perfect that it hurt. 

 

Before he knew what was happening, Sirius twirled away from him and dropped to one knee. Still singing. He threw his arms out, and Remus realised he was being serenaded by his best friend in front of the whole house. Remus stepped back, pressing his hands to his face to hide how red it had gotten. He didn’t know if he was embarrassed for himself or for Sirius. It would get played off as some kind of overly-friendly camaraderie if Remus let it, but he wished it was something else. 

 

He wished they were dating each other and that Sirius wasn’t singing him Queen just because it was what was playing. He knew it was too much to ask for, of course. Sirius wouldn’t think of him that way. Sirius was too beautiful, too confident, for someone like him. Remus was smart, of course, otherwise he would have never become one of the Marauders, but his wit was better suited for the behind the scenes work. He was subtle, quiet in the ways that the other boys weren’t. 

 

He knew Sirius. He’d grown up with him, just as he’d grown up with Pete and James and could predict their movements as easily as he could predict his own. He knew what kind of people Sirius was drawn to, and Remus knew that he wasn’t one of those people. They were friends. Remus was lucky to have that. 

 

Sirius pulled him in close, and Remus’ heart leaped up into his throat. For a moment, for a  _ split second _ , he thought that this would be their magic little moment, and that the world would slip away and Sirius would actually kiss him, but that second passed with the blink of an eye and Sirius threw Remus out again in a spin as the chorus of the song crescendoed. 

 

Sirius let go of Remus again, still singing somehow, and Remus forced a smile onto his face. This was the best he was ever going to get, it seemed, and he’d have to live with that. It would be okay, really, because he’d been in love with his friend for a while. This changed nothing. 

 

Except that… Remus had just admitted to himself that he was in  _ love  _ with Sirius. Not just a crush, not just feelings that were almost too much to contain. Not hormones, not any of that shit.  _ Love _ . Love like how James felt for Lily, or how his parents had felt for each other at one point before things got too hard for a wizard and a muggle to sustain. Love like  _ real fucking feelings _ .

 

“I have to go,” Remus said. And then he went. He headed up to the dorms, even though he knew that that wouldn’t keep Sirius away from him. It would give him enough time to pull out some assignment to pretend to bury himself in. He didn’t need a lot of time. He just needed enough to figure out an excuse for his damn feelings, and to pull himself together and realise that being in love didn’t change a damn thing. 

 

Sirius wasn’t going to love him back. 

 

* * *

 

Sirius found him in the dormitory. Remus knew, on some level, that he would. He’d hoped that maybe, for once in his life, Sirius would have read the room and realised that Remus needed space, but that wasn’t the case.

 

Remus had pulled the curtains closed around his bed, separating from the rest of the room. He still heard the door open and close, and knew from the footsteps alone that it was Sirius. He was the quietest of the four of them when he wanted to be. Remus knew that it came from years of living at Grimmauld Place and having to sneak around so that he didn’t alert either his parents or any of the cursed portraits on the walls. Sirius could make a great spy if he ever needed to be one. 

 

“Remus?” Sirius’ voice called out. “Are you up here?”

 

Remus tensed. Maybe if he was quiet enough, Sirius would leave him alone and he could sulk around in peace. He’d just realised he was in love with one of his best friends; he needed time to go through those emotions and shove them down into a corner of his brain where he could ignore them until he died. 

 

Remus didn't like dealing with his feelings. They sucked, and he wanted no part in them. 

 

“You’re gonna have to come out eventually,” Sirius said. He sounded closer now. He was either on his own bed, or standing outside of Remus’. Remus kept perfectly still, hoping that Sirius would give up and leave him alone. It was a fruitless wish, as Sirius had never once done what he was told, even if it was to his face. He seemed to live off of rebelling against everyone. In most situations, Remus found it amusing. In this current situation, however, he was the exact opposite of amused. 

 

“...it was too much, wasn’t it?” Sirius said, quieter now. 

 

Remus stilled.  _ What _ was too much? The only thing that had happened was that Sirius had been his usual self, and Remus had forgotten to shove his feelings into the deepest corner of the back of his mind. 

 

“I wasn’t thinking again. I do that a  _ lot _ , don’t I?” Sirius laughed at himself. Remus wanted to rip the curtain back and tell him to stop being so damn self-deprecating, but he was still half frozen with curiousity. If this were a different situation, if Remus hadn’t been the reason for Sirius’ own self-deprecation, then maybe-- _ maybe _ \--he could have said something. As it was, he was going to stay back behind his curtain of shame until his friend stopped talking or left the room. Whichever would make the next year and a half of their lives easier. 

 

“--James and I are into much more flashy shit,” Sirius was still going. Remus had somehow managed to tune out half of what his friend had been saying, and had probably missed some vital information. He could see Sirius moving around now, pacing across the dorm and occasionally reaching down to grab something up off of the floor. Sirius cleaned when he was nervous, as though he thought that making the room less cluttered would help declutter whatever he was worrying about. “I should have taken that into account, but it seemed like such a good idea at the time, you know?”

 

Remus nodded, forgetting for a moment that he was trying to hide from Sirius and that Sirius couldn’t see him through the curtain.

 

“It’s just… all semester, we’ve been listening to Queen, and I’ve been paying attention to which songs you liked, because I pay attention to you,” Sirius paused, and Remus could imagine all of the expressions filtering across his face. Sirius tended to wear his heart on his sleeve when he wasn’t paying enough attention to where he was keeping it. He let out a quiet laugh, and his body turned towards the door, moving away from Remus. “I pay a lot of attention to you.”

 

Remus’ hand was on the curtain without his permission. He quickly pulled it back, wincing at the way his mattress creaked from the sudden movement. 

 

Sirius froze. “Moony?”

 

He swallowed. Being silent wasn’t going to keep Sirius from having this conversation with him. That had been made pretty damn obvious during the last five minutes. Remus could shove his feelings down for however long it took to convince Sirius that nothing was wrong. He could do it. He’d hid his crush on Sirius for years now; he could last another five minutes. 

 

He stuck his hand out again and pushed back the curtain. “Hey there, Padfoot.”

 

“...why were you hiding from me?” Now that he could see Sirius’ face, Remus realised that his friend had been worried. There were lines of worry still fading from his features, his grey eyes clouded over. The look was gone in a second, replaced by a lazy smile and bright eyes that betrayed nothing. Sirius was one hell of an actor, sometimes. “Embarrassed by my dancing?”

 

“I needed a break from people,” Remus said, and shrugged. Sirius’ deflection was on the shittier side, but if that was the route he wanted to take, then so be it. Remus could ignore his own curiousity. 

 

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t too much, then?”

 

Or he wasn’t deflecting, and merely trying to make the atmosphere less stressful. Remus would have appreciated a deflection, because when it came down to it, it was always easier to ignore feelings than to address them. Remus knew this from personal experience, of course. 

 

He realised that Sirius was waiting for an actual answer. He pushed a smile up onto his face and shook his head. “No, you were… you were just being you. I was the one who got overwhelmed. I’d forgotten how intense Gryffindor common room parties can get.”

 

“That’s pretty hypocritical, coming from you of all people,” Sirius said. He nudged Remus’ forearm with his fist, and Remus was reminded that, even though Sirius was as queer as they came, he’d still grown up as a rough and tumble little shit. Punching his best mate was a sign of friendship, and a sign that there was nothing more involved. 

 

Remus placed his hand over the spot Sirius had hit anyway. “Oh? And what exactly do you mean by that?”

 

“Who’s in charge of planning the Marauder birthday surprises? You.” Sirius pointed a finger at him. “And who’s always managed to sneak in Firewhiskey despite never telling us how he gets it? Also you. You can be a party animal when you want to, Moony.”

 

“I know,” Remus said, because he could. “But I had a long day, and rounds with Lily were…”

 

“Well, she is Evans, so I can see why that would be draining.”

 

Remus barked out a laugh despite himself. “Oi, don’t let James hear you saying that about his future wife. He’ll drop you off the Astronomy tower.”

 

They were both circling each other, and Remus knew it. Avoiding the question that probably should have been asked earlier. Sirius had been close to saying something important, something intense, before Remus had moved and revealed that he was paying attention. If Remus hadn’t moved, then Sirius would have finished, and their friendship would have shifted one way or another. Remus tried not to regret his actions. A part of his brain rationalised everything by telling him that it was better for Sirius to say whatever he needed to to Remus’ face, instead of a curtain. 

 

Sirius would be pissed if he’d said something that Remus wasn’t meant to hear, after all. He tended to keep his secrets close to his chest until he was ready to share them. He also liked to share his secrets with a fair bit of dramatic flare, and blurting them out to a bed curtain didn’t seem nearly dramatic enough for Sirius Black. 

 

Sirius shrugged Remus off. “If James was going to take me out for teasing Evans, he would have done it years ago. At this rate, he’ll probably ask me to be his best man just so he can see how creative I get with the speech.”

 

“He’ll have to get Lily to agree to date him first,” Remus said. 

 

“He’s working on that.”

 

“Lily’s noticed,” Remus motioned towards the window. The words were no longer visible, as the snow had long melted away and had been replaced with a bitter cold wind and rain, but the implication was still there. James was as dramatic with his reveals as Sirius was. The only difference was that Sirius seemed to get results, and James… didn’t.

 

“What’s she been saying about my best mate?”

 

“The usual,” Remus shrugged. Sure, Lily had seemed less annoyed with James, but then the two of them had returned to a common room in full party mode, and her glare had returned in full force. One step forward, two steps back, and all that. “She still thinks he’s a prat who can’t take anything seriously.”

 

“That’s because he’s already taken Siriusly,” Sirius said, and winked. 

 

Remus punched him in the arm for that one. It was too easy of a set up. “Christ. That fucking pun never gets old with you, does it?”

 

“I have to make this stupid name work for me somehow, don’t I?” Sirius raised his eyebrows at Remus, and time paused. Remus took him in, in all his short, regal glory, and felt his heart swoop again. He could hear someone yelling the lyrics to Somebody to Love from down in the common room, but it sounded miles away from the two of them. 

 

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck. There was a faint dusting of pink across his cheeks, stark in contrast to his pale, pale skin. “Moony, I--”

 

The door swung open and Queen got louder for a moment. Sirius jerked away from Remus, spinning around to reveal Pete in the doorway. Pete’s eyes were wide, and he looked as though he’d walked in on the two of them snogging. 

 

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. It felt as though this night was nothing but constant derailing. “Pete. What’s wrong?”

 

“James said you’d have Firewhiskey under your bed?” Pete offered. 

 

“Yeah, hold on,” Remus said. He ducked down under his bed to dig around for the spare bottle he kept on hand in case of spontaneous parties. He’d have to snag a new one the next time they all went to Hogsmeade, but he wasn’t looking forward to the ordeal. It was a pain to get alcohol when one was underage and also lacking funds in general. 

 

He fished it out (along with an old copy of Quidditch Weekly, which clearly belonged to James and had somehow migrated its way under his bed) and handed it over to Pete. He didn’t throw it this time. He’d learned that the real reason Pete never made the Quidditch team was because his hand-eye coordination was absolute shit. If anything got too close to his face, he’d throw his hands up and close his eyes and hope that somehow God or gravity or some other force would bring it to him. 

 

It never worked. The Marauders had lost many, many drinks to Pete’s poor hand-eye coordination. 

 

“Thanks, mate,” Pete said. He lifted the bottle in a faux toast to the two of them. “Carry on, sorry for interrupting.”

 

With that, he disappeared from the dorm room, closing the door with a loud click as he went. Silence settled between the two of them again. 

 

Sirius stared at the closed door for a long moment before laughing, shaking his head, and turning back around to face Remus again. “Well, at least he’s finally becoming aware of his surroundings. Took him long enough.”

 

“I figure if I ever need to get out of a serious conversation, I can just will Wormtail into the room to make things awkward while I get the hell out,” Remus said. He leaned against his bed, deciding to at least act casual even if he couldn’t pull it off on the inside. “What were you going to say before he burst in and derailed everything?”

 

“I’ve got to build up to it, hold on,” Sirius said. 

 

Remus rolled his eyes. “You’ve been building up for the past hour, mate. Just spit it out.”

 

“Oh, right,” Sirius said. He crossed over the room until he was crowding Remus back against the bed. The wood was digging against the back of his thighs, and he could feel the heat radiating out from Sirius’ body. Up close, he smelled like freshly cut wood and cinnamon. Remus bit the inside of his cheek so that he didn’t do something stupid, like close his eyes and sniff his best friend. 

 

“I kind of fancy you.”

 

Remus let go of his cheek. “You what?”

 

“I had this plan to serenade you with Queen and then sweep you in my arms and kiss you, but you bolted off before I could do half of it, and I realised that maybe a public confession wasn’t the best way to win you over,” Sirius let out a small snort and rolled his eyes at himself. “Figured that out from watching James get rejected five hundred times in a row. The lovestruck dumbass doesn’t ever learn from his mistakes--”

 

“I’m sorry, but did you say you  _ fancy me _ ?” Remus cut his friend off. His heart was pounding in his chest now that his body had caught up with what Sirius had said. 

 

Sirius’ face fell into a dead expression. “Would you rather I said I liked you? Had a crush on you? Thought about snogging you all the bloody time until James said I was more pathetic than him?”

 

“No one’s more pathetic than James,” Remus said. Another deflection. It seemed that the two of them were rather good at that. 

 

“Stop distracting me,” Sirius said. He reached his hand up and put it over Remus’ mouth, and for the first time in six years, Remus didn't try to lick his hand. He’d done that so many times to the Marauders, and them to him, that it felt normal. But in this situation, it felt like the wrong move, and so he kept his mouth closed and his eyes on Sirius. 

 

Remus nodded from behind Sirius’ hand. A silent apology, and a silent motion for Sirius to finish. 

 

“I fancy you, Moony. Remus, Lupin, the man with a furry little problem--” Remus snorted, and Sirius narrowed his eyes at him, “--and I wanted to impress you. So. This is me trying to be impressive and then remembering that you’ve seen me at my worst and most embarrassing, and you’ve laughed at me for it.”

 

He took a deep breath and slowly drew his hand back. “What I mean… what I mean is that I don’t know if I  _ can  _ impress you, not the way that I could with some random bloke who doesn’t know shit about me. You’re one of my best mates, one of the only people I’d trust with my life, and I--shit, mate--I fucking love you. In a queer way.”

 

“Sirius,” Remus said, slowly. “You don’t even know if I’m into blokes.”

 

“Yeah, which makes this incredibly terrifying,” Sirius said. There was a shaky smile on his face, the kind he wore when talking about his mother’s abuse or how his father had barely existed outside of Pureblood functions, or how he’d been watching his brother slowly fall into their bullshit with no way out. “So I guess I’m hoping my hunch was right, because otherwise the next year is going to be really fucking awkward.”

 

“It is,” Remus said. He swallowed. “And… and I think I might fancy you too.”

 

Sirius stared at him, silver eyes wide and mouth slightly open. Remus’ heart jumped up into his throat and his hands moved so that they were cupping Sirius’ jaw. He could feel stubble there, rough against the pads of his fingers, and he was blown away by how  _ warm _ and  _ soft _ Sirius’ skin was under the stubble. He swallowed his heart back down and he ducked his head, inches away from his friend. 

 

As he kissed Sirius, he wondered if he could still call the other boy his friend after this. Kissing changed things. Kissing was not dancing around feelings, or laughing off gestures that weren’t necessarily meant to be read as platonic. Kissing had one explanation and one explanation only, and both he and Sirius knew what that was. 

 

Sirius’ eyes were closed when Remus pulled back from him. His eyelashes fanned out over his cheeks, delicate against the sharp lines of his face. Remus was still holding him. A part of him never wanted to let go. 

 

Sirius’ eyes opened. His face split into a smile, and this one was soft, genuine. Remus had seen it before, but never directed only at him. “You’re incredible.”

 

“I’m incredible,” Remus muttered. “Says the man who wanted to seduce me with bloody _ Queen _ .”

 

“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” Sirius asked. He had a point. Remus didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he had a point, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He’d just kissed Sirius, after all. 

 

Remus rolled his eyes instead. “Don’t get too excited. I liked you before you started blaring Queen at all hours.”

 

“And you never said anything?”

 

“Didn’t think the feelings were returned,” Remus said. He shrugged it off, hoping Sirius wouldn’t dig into that, but he should have known better. Sirius loved to dig. Perhaps that was the reason his damn Patronus was a dog. 

 

“Are you blind?” Sirius blurted out. “Of course they’re returned. I’ve been trying to get you to go out with me since we were thirteen.”

 

“What?”

 

“...you heard me,” Sirius said, and then he kissed Remus. Remus kissed back, because he’d had feelings for Sirius for nearly as long but he wasn’t ready to admit that just yet. Sirius was the dramatic one. Sirius was the one who liked to drop information like a bomb, whereas Remus kept his thoughts in his head where he thought they belonged. 

 

They ended up kissing against Remus’ bed for a good hour before they realised how late it was. There was still school tomorrow, and Remus knew that Sirius had a test in at least one of his classes. He'd seen him and James huddled over their actual textbooks, and all of Sirius’ hair had been up in a bun. He only put all of his hair up when he was concentrating on school work. When he was researching a prank he'd only put up half of it so that he could block his work from random onlookers. 

 

Sirius perched himself on the edge of his own mattress. His curtains were pulled back but his bed was still made. He pulled one of his legs up under him, holding it close to his body with his hands. “Should we go downstairs and find Prongs and Wormtail, or are they on their own for tonight?”

 

“You've got a hickey on your neck,” Remus pointed out. He was still leaning against his own bed, stretching his legs out so that they were crossed at the ankle. “I'll let you decide that.”

 

Sirius winked. “Guess they're on their own then. James’ll have to deal with his hangover on his own tomorrow.”

 

He pulled his shirt off over his head and grabbed his pajamas from under his pillow. Remus realised, as Sirius retreated to the bathroom, that he could actually look at his friend's naked back. 

 

Remus smiled into his hand. They weren't quite yet boyfriends, but they'd definitely blurred the line over friendship during the last few hours. It was exciting and scary at the same time, but Remus was glad it was happening. He'd never let himself get involved with someone else like this. He'd spent so much of his childhood hiding behind books and shy glances. It was time for him to actually live his best life. 

 

Sirius exited the bathroom again, with his sleep shirt slipping off of his shoulder and his pants dragging along the floor. He looked adorable. Remus ignored the heat rising on his cheeks as the two of them made eye contact with each other. 

 

Sirius moved across the room, passing his own bed and moving to where Remus was. He slid up Remus’ legs so that he was pressed against him and half straddling Remus’ waist. “Hey there.”

 

“Hey yourself,” Remus said. He carefully reached out and put his hands on Sirius’ waist to pull him in the rest of the way. Sirius’ skin was warm under his fingers, and his mouth tasted like fresh toothpaste. Remus closed his eyes as Sirius draped himself across Remus’ torso. 

 

Remus let himself lean back, slowly falling into his mattress with Sirius on top of him. His heart flipped in his chest, beating dangerously fast against his ribcage. 

 

The door opened again, and Sirius swore against his mouth before rolling over to lay next to Remus in his bed. He turned his head towards the door, looking more annoyed than embarrassed. “What do you want?”

 

“...I guess it worked then,” James’ voice said from the door. It sounded a little like he was holding back laughter. Remus sat up on his elbows, his bangs falling into his eyes, and raised a judgemental eyebrow at his friend. James grinned back. “Hey, look, it was mostly Padfoot’s idea. I just helped him make it happen.”

 

Remus huffed. “It worked. But maybe take a page out of Sirius’ book the next time you try and ask Lily out. He got me to kiss him by taking me  _ out of the spotlight _ and being genuine. Its surprisingly effective.”

 

“I'll keep that in mind,” James said, and pointed finger guns at the two of them. “But for now, you two should stick to separate beds. The curtains aren't sound proof.”

 

“Oh my  _ God,  _ Prongs!” Sirius exclaimed, laughing.

 

Remus half-heartedly threw his pillow across the room. James dodged it, thanks to his years of dodging Bludgers, and the pillow flew out into the hallway. James watched it fall down a few stairs and then laughed at it. 

 

Remus sat all the way up. “You’re gonna pick that up, right?”

 

“You threw it, you're on your own for that,” James said. He walked across the room and face planted into his own mattress with a soft  _ oof _ noise. 

 

Remus looked down at Sirius, and Sirius looked back up at him. His hair was falling back from his face, splayed out across Remus’ bedspread in a tangle of purposefully messy waves. Remus took a piece of Sirius’ hair between his fingers and twirled it around for a moment before dropping it over his face. Sirius blew it away, and Remus put it right back. “You want to get me my pillow on your way back to your own bed?”

 

“Only if you agree to be my boyfriend,” Sirius said. 

 

Remus rolled his eyes and ignored James’ muffled laughing. “Yes, I agree to be your boyfriend.”

 

“One pillow, coming right up,” Sirius shot up from the mattress, bouncing on the pads of his feet as he landed on the floor. He ducked out into the hallway and threw the pillow back in before following it himself. Remus caught the pillow and held it close to his chest. Sirius crossed back over to Remus’ bed first and kissed his forehead. “Night, Moony. Boyfriend Moony.”

 

“Night, Pads,” Remus said. 

 

“You two are already disgusting,” James said from his pillow. “Incredible. I don’t know what I was expecting.”

 

“You’ll be worse with Evans,” Sirius said. He walked across James’ bed instead of going around it, and James swatted at Sirius’ ankle as he walked over him. “And I bet you’ll be one of those annoying couples who are all over each other in public, snogging and making dumb faces at each other. At least Moony and I’ll keep it in the dorm room.”

 

“I’m not big on PDA, Prongs, don’t worry about it,” Remus said. 

 

“That makes one of you,” James gave him a thumbs up. 

 

“And I can work on reigning the dog in,” Remus added. 

 

Sirius flipped him off. Remus smiled innocently back, and Sirius pouted before flopping back onto his own bed in defeat. It was such a familiar pattern to fall back into, the bantering between the three of them (or four, if Pete were to ever return to the dorm room). Remus was glad to still have that between his friends. He didn’t want his new relationship with Sirius to ever make things change. The four of them had a near perfect dynamic, and so long as they kept that up, Remus knew that the rest of the world would figure itself out. 

 

* * *

 

As the weather got warmer, the Marauders started their annual migration back outside. There was a particular clump of trees that looked out over the lake that they’d claimed for themselves back in second year, and every spring, the four of them would move their meetings to those trees. 

 

This year, the set up was a little different. Sirius and Remus were sitting closer together, with Sirius occasionally laying out across Remus’ legs and pushing his books off of his lap. Since they didn’t have NEWTS or OWLS to worry about this year, the four of them had put studying for finals onto the back burner and were instead focusing on a new goal.

 

Get Lily to stop seeing James as a complete prat, and realise that he had some potential as a boyfriend. 

 

“Oi, Evans! Come ‘ere, I want to show you something!” Sirius shouted out. That wasn’t part of the plan. 

 

James reached over Pete to slap Sirius’ arm with his quill. “Don’t bring her over here, we’re not ready yet!”

 

“I thought you said you knew how to improvise,” Pete said. He was perched up on a low branch, slumped over with his hands on his elbows and his feet dangling down. “This is your chance to show off.”

 

“Bloody hell,” James muttered under his breath. 

 

Remus shrugged and tangled his hand in Sirius’ hair. “Just remember what we told you. Don’t make a spectacle out of it, act like a real person and not your Quidditch persona, and you’ll be fine.”

 

“I’m not ready for this,” James pushed his glasses up his nose with the back of his hand.

 

“Are you or are you not a damn Gryffindor?” Sirius asked him. 

 

“I am.”

 

“Then act like one,” Sirius tilted his head back and waved his arm again. “Evans! It’s important! Come on!”

 

“If it’s so important, come down here and tell me yourself!” She shouted back from down the hill. Her arms were folded across her chest, but there was an amused look in her eyes, and Remus could tell that she’d at least considered coming up to them. 

 

“James wants to snog you!” Pete yelled. 

 

“I’m going to hex your bloody pants off,” James said. 

 

Pete threw his hands up. “I wasn’t wrong!”

 

“That’s not the point,” Remus said. He reached out for one of his safety books, ready to flip it open to a random page and act as though he had no idea what his friends were doing. “You might want to get a head start, James’ ears are getting suspiciously red.”

 

Lily had started up the hill. James looked every bit the deer he was, with his brown eyes hilariously wide behind his glasses. Pete was teetering on the branch, trying to decide if running was a good option or if Remus was just taking the piss out of him (he was). Sirius was half off of Remus’ lap now, looking back and forth between James and Lily as though he couldn’t believe this was actually happening. 

 

Remus split his book open, and two slips of paper fell out. He frowned at them. “What the hell?”

 

“Oh, shit, forgot I put those in there,” Sirius said. 

 

Remus grabbed the papers and turned them over. Tickets. Tickets to a Queen show, for this summer, down in London. He raised his eyebrows. “Are you and James going for round two?”

 

“No, but you and I could go for round one?” Sirius raised his eyebrows, somewhere between nervous and hopeful. 

Remus smiled. “Alright. Just don’t try and serenade me again. Freddie’s live vocals are supposed to be to die for.”

 

“Guess I’ll have to fight Freddie Mercury for your affections, then,” Sirius said. 

 

Remus placed the tickets in Sirius’ hand, and then curled his own hand around them both. “Don’t. You’ve already got them.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment/kudos if you enjoyed!


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